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# ClassicCard | ||
re-writing hypercard in html5 | ||
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# Vision | ||
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The point is not to make something fun to use, although the end product will be fun to use. | ||
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The point is not to make something useful, although the end product will be usable. | ||
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The point is not even to make something educational, at least not directly. | ||
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I view this project as an artistic statement. Software has the potential to become close to pure invention -- quick iteration is possible, platforms are reliable, actions are done and undone, there are no parts to order, variable costs are near-zero, and ideas are shared quickly. My dream is that writing software can be a way of self-expression for any ever-increasing number of people regardless of background, just as it has transformed my life. We are moving in this direction, but even in the age that celebrates coding and builds code camps and free online tutorials, I feel that we haven’t taken the right path. | ||
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There are many barriers. Outside factors are strong; others have written about this more eloquently than I, but here are a few observations. Ten years ago I wrote scheduling software for a school district in a rural area where many families did not even have internet access, and our government is just this month canceling plans to expand internet service to rural areas. In TEALS presentations I learned that 75% of US high schools do not even have a single class to teach programming. Increasing the awareness of these problems is needed. I’m not saying people under economic injustice should just “learn to code” -- I am talking about self-expression and self-efficacy. And even once access to technology is present, there are barriers. Programming is heavily culturally mythologized so that only those seen as “smart” are encouraged to pursue it. This affects both the young and the elderly. There are so many positive initiatives and energy in the right direction towards helping people, but they fight against the tide of years of accumulated software development complexity, cultural stereotypes, ideas about what who should use development toolkits, and unhelpful learning environments that assume large amounts of prior knowledge. | ||
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I'm sure there were countless problems with software and accessibility in the 80s and early 90s. But I am fascinated by the idea that the line between “user” and “programmer” was so blurred. You set up your Commodore 64 and typed in its software, line by line. You shared fun Basic scripts with your friends, and even made your own modifications! These computers had an incredibly steep learning curve, but they also gave the dignity of assuming the user was capable of learning to not only operate, but transform and create. And HyperCard did this amazingly. | ||
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Our lives (social, career, entertainment) center around software -- but we are discouraged from learning how this software truly works. Stressful at a deep level. We are made into inadequate, passive consumers, when software has the potential to be so much more powerful. | ||
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ClassicCard is an artistic statement pushing us to consider that an old black-and-white program from the 90s can inspire us to search for solutions in what modern software development is missing. |